


tangled up in you (black and blue)

by bringmayflowers



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-03
Updated: 2019-10-03
Packaged: 2020-11-23 02:22:15
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,659
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20884577
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bringmayflowers/pseuds/bringmayflowers
Summary: He’s thankful he decided to be dumb this year and schedule some of his classes around 10am, and thankful his Political Science professor doesn’t like late students. (Or else he never would’ve methim.)





	tangled up in you (black and blue)

**Author's Note:**

  * For [ensorcel](https://archiveofourown.org/users/ensorcel/gifts).

“Shit!” Harry yells as his papers fall to the wooden floor of his apartment, covering them and his socked feet in a blanket of pages.

“You better hurry! You know, I’ve heard this professor really doesn’t like when students—”

“Yes, when students are late he gets really mad, I know ‘Mione.” Harry sighs out while shoving his papers messily back in his bag. He watches enviously as Hermione appears out of their kitchen in their shared apartment in her pajamas, holding what he assumes is a bowl of cereal. 

Harry shoves his glasses back up on his nose, slips on a pair of shoes and opens the door, throwing out, “Bye! See you for dinner!” behind his shoulder. Right before the heavy door shuts, he hears the TV click on, and sighs at his previous self.

See, he decided, despite everyone telling him it was a bad idea, he decided to schedule some of his morning classes (3 out of 7 days of the week) around 10am in order to, as he quotes himself, “fix his bad sleeping habits” that had developed from scheduling all of his first and second year courses after 12pm according to everyone else’s advice. But now, instead, he was just always late to said morning classes, and instead just cursed that he didn’t naturally wake up early. Hermione was smart and her first class was after 11pm on any given day, even though she naturally woke up at 8am.

Harry runs, and thankfully catches the right subway and right on time: while the announcements are declaring last call for those boarding, he slips right in between the rapidly closing doors. 

He reaches his stop with no problems, but as he’s running to his hall, a bike turning onto the path he’s running down and going the opposite way he is rams right into him and he almost bounces backwards. 

“Shit!” As his papers flutter in the air around him the second time in an hour and drift slightly, before lightly settling in a circle around him on the cobblestoned path, carried by the small breeze of October, he feels a sense of déjà vu. But all of these thoughts, along with his thoughts to “Pick up the papers before they blow further away!” blow just as far as his papers will if he is allowed to continue gazing at the gorgeous blonde specimen that was just knocked off his bike. But when he talks, Harry’s thoughts of admiration immediately disappear.

“Bro, what the fuck? Watch out next time. This is a new bike!”

Harry rolls his eyes. He cannot believe he just had those gross thoughts about a guy like this—like Hermione says, he suddenly realizes he _ is _ a dumb gay. 

“Bro,” the sarcasm dripping from this word, “You knocked into me too! And I wasn’t on a bike. I’m the pedestrian! Shouldn’t you be apologizing to me?” In the middle of gesturing to explain to this _ prick _ what manners are, he catches sight of his watch and swears again.

“Fuck, I’m gonna be late for Professor Dramworth’s class!” Harry gathers his papers best he can, and runs off, yelling out, “Sorry ‘bout the bike!” behind him to the blonde beauty he’s long wiped from his mind. The man sitting on the grass only runs an annoyed hand through his hair, but does get it: Professor Dramworth is notable on campus for being really harsh to latecomers to his class, but thank god he’s an English literature professor while Draco is in the sciences.

(The boy may or may not come back to Harry’s mind sometime, maybe even in the middle of the night, but Harry would never admit that.)

-+=+=+-

It is weeks later when they encounter each other again. Harry is sitting in the library on a Sunday, minding his own business. Blonde Boy—as Hermione refers to him after Harry told her that night about his encounter and this stranger’s “beautiful white-blonde hair blowing in the breeze”—sits down right in front of him, although the 4-seat table was spread out with Harry’s American History II notes, notebook filled with scribbles detailing the impact of various American Presidents and clearly symbolizing two things: occupied, and do not disturb.

His hand plunks down on the table, right on top of Harry’s notes of Richard Nixon and his mafia connections. Harry looks up, expression already that of an annoyed college student, seemingly perpetually in that state.

“What?” The nameless boy raises his hands innocently, “You dent and scratch my _ brand-new _ bike, the least I could do is disturb some of your precious studying time.” 

As Harry’s eyes shoot fire, the other sighs defeatedly. “OK, I just really needed somewhere to sit and you were the only person I knew.” He gestures around the campus library, filled to the brim with other studying students, much like Harry himself. “I’m Draco, by the way. Draco Malfoy.”

Harry can only sigh defeatedly, his upcoming history midterm worth more than fighting with this stupidly gorgeous blonde man sitting in front of him.

“Fine. I’m Harry, Harry Potter. You can stay.” Draco plasters a stupid grin on his face. “But-” He looks forlorn for a second, “You have to do actual work. I have a midterm in 4 days and I can’t fail.” Draco nods excitedly (almost like a small cute puppy—wait, _ what_?). Harry shakes his head and goes back to his notes, furiously scribbling in blue pen.

Draco tries to as quietly as he can—though it feels like he’s deafening in the silence of the library, filled only with quiet murmurs and scribbling of pens and pencils—take his notebook and pencil case out, pulling his laptop out along with it.

He starts doing the homework for his Calc II class, but gets stuck with the wrong answer. He starts clicking on the back of his black pen habitually, biting his lip and trying to figure out where he went wrong. 

Apparently he does it too much because Harry looks up and pushes his round glasses back up, face showing the same annoyed expression as before.

“Sorry, sorry. Habits die hard, huh?” Draco tries a joke, but Harry just looks back down at his numerous notes of Nixon and, was that Roosevelt now?

Draco goes back to his work, and finally, finally comes up with the right answer, finishing the question with a whispered chant of, “Yes!”

(Harry definitely does not see. No, he doesn’t see peeking through his eyelashes and hair at the boy sitting across the table from him, and his ears definitely do not turn red at how cute that little demonstration of triumph was.)

Draco finishes his calculus, and moves on to physics. The rapidly darkening sky turns from blue into a rainbow of colours, and he is enraptured. He stares outside dreamily, wondering what plans he should make for the coming break. 

(Harry definitely doesn’t look up secretly and see the boy gazing outside, his white-blonde hair practically dyed by the colours of the sky outside. No. Of course not. He would never.)

Apparently he has many annoying habits, because he doesn’t notice his leg is shaking underneath the table. Harry does, and taps him on the shoulder. 

“Can you stop shaking your leg? It’s shaking the entire table.” Draco blinks out of his daze and finally reacts.

“Yeah, sorry.” Draco shakes his head and bends his neck from side to side, waiting to hear that familiar crack. “I never noticed these habits until now.” 

Harry feels bad for being so annoying, and says apologetically, “Yeah, thanks.”

Draco looks back down at his work, and works through a couple more problems. But when he starts looking at a diagram for his next problem, he starts flipping his pen.

Harry sighs deeply, and Draco finally seems to notice his annoyance. He looks up and they meet eyes, grey to green, and Harry starts packing his stuff into his bag.

“I’m sorry, you’re just… really distracting. Actually, it’s not you. I just get distracted really easily.” Harry finishes packing his stuff up, and slings his bag over his shoulder. 

Draco looks in disbelief as he walks away from him, and quickly shoves his belongings into his bag, almost forgetting his jacket on the back of his chair and grabbing it the last second. He catches up with Harry outside, walking on one of the paths toward the close subway stations.

“Wait!” He catches his shoulder and spins him so they’re face to face. “Can I see you again? I promise I’ll try to fix my bad habits.” He rubs his neck with his hand and looks so hopeful, Harry can’t bear the look he would have if he said no.

“Fine, just… stoplookingandactingsocute.”

“What?” Draco’s deafness is really the bane of his existence.

Harry’s ears turn bright red, even visible in the dark evening outside. “Agh, nevermind.” He turns and starts walking again.

“OK, bye!” Draco waves excitedly at the retreating figure, taking that as an acceptance. Harry turns and waves, albeit reluctantly.

(He definitely does not turn around and hide his smile, seeing the boy so bright with the lights of the library spilling out and encasing his silhouette in a warm glow. His cheeks do not turn red. No, that’s just the effort of him walking fast back home. His heart does not pound harder, swirling with the anticipation of seeing him again. Harry’s ears only turn red because of the cold. There are no other meanings. His face curves with a small smile because he got a lot of studying done at the library, not because of anyone specific who was also at the library. No, definitely not.)

-+=+=+-

It’s been months since that day and the library, and true to his word, Draco has joined Harry in many study sessions albeit they are in totally different programs, and even becoming a regular part of Harry’s routine now.

Once, Draco couldn’t meet at their regular time and place because of another appointment, and Harry even found himself missing the other boy. He had somewhat adapted to the other’s thinking/nervous tics and even started copying him. An easy example would be: Harry only used to use blue pen, because during their “argument” (if it could even be called that), he said it was scientifically proven that blue pen helps people remember easier. But Draco only uses black pen, because he says it’s “classic and smooth”, and definitely not because he accidentally ordered a bunch of black pens when he was a teen and still hasn’t finished using up all of them. (Harry knew he was right. Though he still started gravitating towards black pens just a _ little _ more, despite his better judgement.)

It was partly because it was the end of the semester, and the two had nothing to study for that Harry had invited Draco to his apartment to have a movie marathon. (Nothing to do with the fact that Harry missed him and their weekly study sessions.) Because Draco lived in on-campus residences, Harry’s apartment was just naturally the better choice.

It was also partly that during one of these study sessions that the two, through teasing and goofing off, (Yes, Harry _can _ joke around, Draco was shocked at first too) that the two found out they both had a love for cheesy Disney movies. They even already have the list ready for tonight: beginning with a classic, Tangled, then The Little Mermaid, and finally a new favourite of both of them, Frozen.

This series of events all culminated to Harry furiously cleaning his house on a Thursday night, scrubbing all signs of his slobbiness from the apartment and hurriedly ordering takeout when he saw the clock and realized he forgot to make any dinner. Knocks clunk on the metal door, and Harry rushes to open it (not before he checks his outfit and hair in the mirror beside the door just for these purposes though).

Draco holds up bags of takeout almost as a peace offering: “Saw the takeout guy downstairs, asked him which floor he was going to, found out it was you and took it up for him.” Draco smiles brightly (the one Harry always calls dorky but secretly loves).

“Great! Uhhh, here. Leave your shoes here.” Harry points to the shoe rack, and takes the bags out of Draco’s hands as he toes off his shoes.

When they’re finally settled on the couch with the takeout on the table, metal utensils from Harry’s given to each, and both comfortably settled on the couch, they begin.

It’s not until the part where Flynn is breaking Rapunzel out of the tower that Hermione suddenly bounces in the door, announcing her arrival with a jingling of keys and a loud, “Shit!” when she drops said keys. She walks in to the two on the couch, lights very dimmed, only on in the open kitchen. Takeout is finished in the forms of bags of trash on the floor and both are comfortable on the couch, sharing a bag of popcorn. She drops her bag in her room and comes back out, grabbing one of her Tupperware dinners she prepares every Sunday from the fridge, and throws it in the microwave. It’s only then she introduces herself to the stranger on her couch.

“Hey, I’m Hermione, Harry’s roommate. We’ve been friends since middle school. You’re Draco from the library, right?” She reaches out with a hand to shake his.

“Yeah, Draco Malfoy, from the library,” he looks at Harry quizzically, wondering what he’s said about him to his roommate. “I guess,” He reciprocates with his hand, the two shaking hands. He notices her scrunch her eyebrows together, but the the microwave beeps and he forgets all about it., She goes to grab it, grabbing some utensils for her, pasta?, along the way. She walks past them with her dinner, grabs a handful of their popcorn with a, “Thanks, Harry. Have fun!” accompanied with some raised eyebrows on the last two words (which Draco has no idea what she means, but the two seem close—intimately close?—so probably some inside joke he doesn’t get) and retreats to her bedroom. 

Draco looks at Harry, questioning that entire encounter, but Harry just calmly returns to the movie, so Draco decides to let it go. (Is that a tinge of pink on Harry’s cheeks? No, must be the lighting playing tricks on him.)

Harry is very animated, laughing and getting very excited whenever Rapunzel and Flynn interact. (Draco thinks it’s very endearing.) Harry just forgot how much he loved Tangled, and how much he had missed it since the beginning of the semester.

Finally when the movie gets to the scene with Rapunzel and Flynn in the cave, seemingly doomed does Draco work up enough courage to say what he’s been thinking since Hermione walked in.

“You guys make a cute couple.” Draco says as nonchalantly as possible.

“Huh?” Harry looks very confused.

“You guys, y’know,” he gestures to the closed bedroom door and Harry, “You and Hermione make a cute couple. I can definitely see you guys being together.” He pops some popcorn in his mouth to avoid thinking about it too much, in fear of suddenly breaking down.

“Umm, I’m not sure how to say this any more delicately,” this time, it’s Draco’s turn to be confused, and he turns to meet Harry’s eyes who are staring back at him. “But I’m gay. Like, super, super gay. Why do you think I’ve been, for lack of a better term, squealing every time Flynn does something cute for Rapunzel? Because he’s SO hot and cute at the same time. I mean, look at him.”

Draco’s eyes flick to the screen, where Rapunzel is singing so her glowing hair can rescue her and Flynn out of their death-sentence-cave and he can feel his face immediately flush, redder than he’s ever been. And that’s saying a lot, since he’s very pale, and has answered his fair share of wrong questions in high school. He can only nod slowly as he starts unconsciously comparing himself to Flynn, even though Harry could never like him like that. (Could he?)

“Oh. Cool. Me too.” Draco decides to say on impulse, before he loses his sudden burst of courage.

“Ok. Cool.” Harry almost echoes him, and the two robotically turn back towards the movie.

Hermione comes out near the end of Rapunzel, sitting on Harry’s other side, declaring, “I finished my homework.” and starts watching with the two.

Draco is honestly really thankful, because after their awkward confessions earlier in the movie, they’ve both just been mostly silent, and Harry almost frozen-still. She’s a good way to break the tension.

By midway through The Little Mermaid, Hermione has started staring at Draco oddly. He noticed her, and eventually couldn’t take it anymore.

“What?” He asks her, maybe a bit too abruptly. She blinks a couple times while Harry watched this take place.

“Are you from our high school? You look familiar for some odd reason…” She trails off, thinking about who this person could possibly remind her of from her adolescence. 

“Well, I went to Churchill Secondary School for middle and high school, and then—”

“Wait,” Hermione pushes herself up to a straighter sitting position and pauses the movie. “You went to Churchill?” She asks incredulously.

“Uh, yeah? Why?” Hermione and Harry share a look. “Why?” This time Draco pushes himself up on the couch.

“We,” Harry answers for her, “both went to Attlee Academy.” Draco recognizes the name immediately.

See, Churchill Secondary School and Attlee Academy had a fierce rivalry. Though they were both named after (debatably) great Prime Ministers, the rivalry between the schools was anything but. The two schools were the only high schools within their town, so they played against each other in everything: football, basketball, rugby, everything.

“But,” Hermione slouches back down, “We’re grown up now. It doesn’t really matter.”

“Yeah, guess not. That was quite a few years ago. Just a small world, huh?” Draco replies.

“Wait,” Hermione sits ramrod straight again and stares at the other boy, having a sudden epiphany, “Were you a seeker on the school Quidditch team?”

“Uh, yeah. Three out of four years I was actually. Just my first year I was training.”

“Oh, that’s why you looked so familiar.” Hermione nods in understanding. Seeing Draco’s confused face, she explains, “I was a manager for our school’s Quidditch team, and thereby required to attend all games and record stats and other small jobs. So we probably actually crossed paths quite a bit.” She is about to unpause the movie, but Harry cuts in.

“Wait, what? I’m still confused.” Hermione sighs like she’s used to the notion of Harry being confused.

“Draco was a seeker for Churchill, I was manager for our team, we probably crossed paths a lot. You only went to the games for Cedric and I know for a fact you wouldn’t even look at anyone else on our team, much less our opponents. So that’s why you didn’t make the connection.” Harry nods slowly, finally seeming to understand.

“OK, _finally _ back to the movie.” Hermione sighs and unpauses the movie, watching as Ariel tries to brush her hair with a fork while Eric watches. Draco is just about to ask about Cedric (Why does that name sound familiar?) but shakes it off and continues watching the classic, and one of his favourite Disney movies as well. 

The night is definitely a success as him and Harry bond (even more than they did before), and he thinks Hermione is really nice as well. It’s nearly 11pm when they finish the movies, and late enough for Harry to insist that Draco take a cab home, and he would even pay half, even though taking the subway would be cheaper. 

It takes another 5 minutes for Draco to call a cab and have it arrive downstairs, just enough for him to help fold the blanket him and Harry were using (it got cold, even though his cheeks felt like they were burning up) and clean up a little bit of their garbage. Harry is even so nice as to bring him downstairs, practically shove him in the cab to make sure he doesn’t secretly take the subway, and peel off two tens after he tells the cabbie the address of the campus residences and asks for the price.

Harry returns to a widely-grinning Hermione, washing the dishes… happily? She looks at him and simply states, “You’re so whipped for him already.”

Harry flushes bright red, but still denies it, “No, what do you mean? We’re just friends. He definitely doesn’t like me that way.”

“He definitely doesn’t like me that way.” Hermione says in a mocking voice. “No, he definitely does.”

Harry just shakes his head and wipes down the countertops as Hermione finishes with the dishes. He reaches out to help her dry them. “Ugh, I don’t want to have this conversation where he obviously likes you but you just choose to deny it. It’s so tiring.” Harry can just keep shaking his head, outwardly displaying a “no way” attitude, but secretly hoping that what she’s saying is true. They finish with the dishes, and he wipes the countertops down a last time for any stray puddles not visible.

“OK, I’m going to bed.” says Hermione. 

Harry nods, replying with a simple, “I’m just gonna throw this trash out, then I’m out too.” 

(He dreams of him and Draco studying together, except they’re in a private room in the library instead of their usual table by the windows, where they officially met for the first time. Everything seems normal, except Draco tilts his chin up when he says something goofy, and he doesn’t turn away. Instead, he seems OK with it, but when he expects their lips to meet, he jolts awake.)

-+=+=+-

Saturday has Draco waiting at their usual table in the afternoon, planning on surfing YouTube with Harry for a while since their second semester hasn’t started yet. When Harry shows up, he takes his laptop out of his bag, pulls it out, and ceremoniously announces, without any hint of a question being asked, “We’re doing Buzzfeed quizzes.”

“OK, sure.” Draco shrugs. He doesn’t particularly care (as long as he’s with Harry).

Harry continues, “Hermione showed them to me last night, and now I’m hooked.” His voice got more excited and giddy as he continued, “I mean, who doesn’t want to find out [ what Disney Princess they are](https://www.buzzfeed.com/flowerseoks/choose-some-pictures-and-well-tell-you-wich-disne-6hch55skqy)?” Harry says, with no amount of sarcasm at all.

They start doing quizzes, and eventually ascend to a stage where they do the same quizzes as each other and see what the other gets. This all happens until Draco sees someone through the library doors, and waves to them.

“Hey, my friend wants to compare our final calc exams, that’s OK right?”

“Yeah sure, no problem. I’ll just keep doing these while you guys do your stupid STEM stuff. Loser.” Harry sticks out his tongue so Draco knows he’s kidding with him, and judging by the laugh Draco gives, he does.

“Oh, hey, Cedric, over here!” Draco whisper-yells, thankful there’s not as many people there because it’s the end of the semester.

Harry hears the familiar name, namely his crush two years out of the four in high school, and he can feel all the hairs on his arm stand on end. It almost feels like a movie where he turns in slow-motion and sees the previous love-of-his-life reappear (though it doesn’t really matter, since Harry is particularly infatuated with another boy we shall keep unnamed, with hair so blonde it’s practically white.)

Cedric pulls out a chair beside Draco, across from Harry. He’s holding what Harry assumes is their exam paper, and before he starts Cedric decides to greet Draco’s friend sitting at the same table. When Harry and Cedric’s eyes meet, a spark of recognition flickers in Cedric’s eyes.

“Oh my gosh, are you Harry Potter?”

“Yeah, Cedric from Attlee right? Infamous seeker?” Cedric laughs it off good-naturedly, waving a hand at his past. 

He teases him back, wittily replying with, “Harry Potter? Class valedictorian and author of possibly the most inspirational speech ever?” Harry’s cheeks tint red at this, not knowing Cedric really knew him at all. 

Draco can only watch from the side, not really knowing how to join in because he was from a different school.

Cedric remembers why he went to the library in the first place, and turns back to Draco. “We should probably start comparing answers.” 

“Right.” Draco shuffles around the contents of his bag a bit, and pulls out a collection of stapled papers. While the two talk about derivatives, Harry does Buzzfeed quizzes, ranging from “[Make An Ice Cream Cone And We'll Guess Your Inner Animal](https://www.buzzfeed.com/sunkissedbaby/make-your-dream-ice-cream-scoop-and-well-tell-you-cz1r9ed7yd)” to “[Don't Get Freaked Out, But We Know Your Exact Age And Location Based On The Mukbang You Do](https://www.buzzfeed.com/laurengarafano/mukbang-food-quiz-reveal-age-location)”, and everything in between.

By 5pm, Harry is hungry, and his stomach is complaining. As if on cue, his stomach growls, but seems even louder in the near-silence of the library due to almost no one being there.

“Sorry if I’m interrupting any previous plans you guys had, but how does dinner sound?”

“Oh no problem! We didn't have any previous plans.” Harry hurries to reassure him. “I’m free, what about you, Draco?”

Honestly, Draco is a little tired, and would love to go home and take a nap. But he doesn’t want to leave Harry and Cedric together alone for some odd reason; his chest tightens every time he thinks about it.

“Sure, I’m good.”

Cedric grins at Harry, and says, “Sorry, just one more question. OK so question 40… ” 

In 10 minutes, they are out of the library and wondering where to go for dinner. At this moment, Harry gets a text from Hermione. 

_ hey, wanna get KBBQ tgt tn? _

Harry jumps on this, texting back. 

_ sure, i’m with Draco and Cedric (ikr, can u believe it? seeker Cedric from Attlee) _

_ anyway, can I bring them along? we were all gonna go out together for dinner anyway _

_ yeah sure, no problem. meet at Arirang? _

_ sure, meet u there! get us a table for 4 <3 _

Harry cuts into the other two’s conversation. “Hey guys, Hermione invited us to a KBBQ place her and I go to all the time, want to go?”

“Uh,” the two exchange a look.

Cedric seems to answer for both of them. “Sure, I’ve never had KBBQ but I’m down to try it! I’ve heard it’s really good and apparently…”

Draco walks behind the two, feeling just a little (just a _ little_!) left out. Harry is talking animatedly to Cedric about what KBBQ is like, and how it’s eaten, and because the sidewalk really only comfortably fits two, he can only lag a little behind them.

“Over here guys!” They walk into the restaurant and Hermione waves at from a table, already grilling a little bit of meat. 

Harry slides into the empty side of the booth, Cedric following after him, and Draco has no choice but to sit beside Hermione. He can only watch as Harry and Cedric interact cutely, like a couple, and remembers to their movie night, something Hermione said but never clicked until now: Harry used to have a crush on Cedric. His mood immediately drops, and can only think about how cute the two would be together. 

-+=+=+-

After the meal, everyone is full of beef, little side dishes, and a little soju, with Draco having the most. Harry noticed Draco seemed a little out of it and drinking a little more than normal, and maybe wasn’t quite used to how much alcohol was in soju compared to beer, which is what Draco normally had. Harry was worried. 

They decide to split the bill evenly, Cedric insisting because he enjoyed it a lot too, and Draco sluggishly pulling two 20s out of his wallet. The four walk out (with Draco more staggering and leaning on Harry than walking), and split up to their respective homes. 

Cedric waves goodbye to the three of them, then starts walking in the approximate direction of his house, since his family lived near the university. Hermione decides to get a cab, after Harry saying he’ll take Draco home since he seems in no state to go back to the campus residences alone, and is the only one of the four who has been to his house (just once! when they got rained on and Draco’s dorm was the closest place). 

Harry pushes Draco into the cab with little resistance (though at first, Draco did start loudly yelling, “What do you MEAN? I’m not drunk”, even though he was clearly drunk, lots of arm flailing, almost knocking Harry’s glasses off). He throws the address of the on-campus residences towards the cabbie, finally letting a sigh of relief escapes his lips when he gets Draco’s seatbelt on properly. The relieved feeling doesn’t last long though, when Harry sees Draco’s sleeping state.

Thank god the seatbelt was put on before, because there is no way he’d be able to get it on Draco in this state. But then Harry does a double-take: Draco is lying on his thighs, eyes shut and cheeks a rosy pink from the alcohol. He looks ethereal, the glowing streetlamps from outside filtering in in waves through the window. 

He touches a hand to the other’s cheek, but before he can do anything more, the cab driver announces their arrival.

Harry thanks him, gently rocks Draco to a (somewhat) conscious state, unbuckles his seatbelt, and heaves him out the door, Harry carrying most of Draco’s body weight. Thankfully Draco’s roommate isn’t home, or else this would be a lot more awkward. 

Harry walks through the shared, small living room and kitchen, and goes to lay him on the bed in his bedroom. Harry flips on the lamp beside the bed, and begins to take off Draco’s shoes. He starts mumbling, and eventually his eyes flutter open, though still clearly still not sober.

Draco suddenly loudly exclaims, “I HATE HARRY!”

Harry’s first shushes him, then reacts to his actual words. He knows Draco is drunk-speaking, so he decides to ask some questions he wants replied to with candor. “Why?” he asks innocently.

“He’s too cute and hot and makes my heart does weird things like flips or something when I see or speak to him. It’s like,” he pauses here, almost as if to carefully consider his words even though he is pretty drunk. Harry flushes red at this, and is glad Draco is so concentrated on his words he isn’t even noticing Harry. “My heart is doing acrobatics, y’know?” Harry nods along while he gets Draco more comfortable. Draco pauses for a while, then suddenly starts again. 

“I’m not even a gymnast! I don’t know why my heart is doing this,” Harry flushes even redder at this. He pretends to be not-Harry.

“Well Draco,” speaking to him like he’s talking to a small child, “How about you take a biiiiiiig nap, and when you wake up, you can see Harry again?”

“OK,” Draco even answers like a child, ending his agreement with a pout. He doesn’t really want to sleep, but he wants to see Harry, and his want to see Harry outweighs his want to not sleep, so he should sleep. Draco lies down, and Harry lays the blanket over him, tucking it in at the edges.

“OK, time for bed! Good night,” Harry says.

Draco responds, “Night night!” and he squeezes his eyes shut, almost like that would make the time pass faster. Harry turns out the lamp in the room, and closes the door behind him. 

He does one last thing in the kitchen and slowly opens the door to Draco’s bedroom, careful to not wake him up, and leaves it on the nightstand beside Draco’s bed, far enough away to ensure he won’t knock it off in the night.

-+=+=+-

Draco wakes up with a splitting headache, and thankfully sees a bottle of ibuprofen on his nightstand, a glass of water right beside the bottle. After his vision clears a little, and the pounding in his head goes away, he sees that they were also accompanied by a white white, folded into quarters. 

_ hey, _

_ you’re cute when you’re drunk. _

_ Harry _

_ P.S. my heart isn’t a gymnast either, but it certainly flips for you. _

_ P.P.S. coffee, 3:30pm, that cute little place by Drexler St.? text me <3 _

At the end of the note, totally unexpectedly, all of his memories from last night flash back to him. Drinking too much because he thought Harry and Cedric would make the better couple, almost knocking off Harry’s glasses, and confessing to Harry. But at the sight of the last two lines of the note, his heart starts doing that acrobatic thing it does. He doesn’t really mind it though.

3:30pm was the perfect time for both of them. Draco loves that Harry knows his schedule and habits down to a T. And that Draco knows the same for him too, knowing that today he has lunch at home, a relatively short drive away, and must want to go home and change in between getting home and their… date (Draco blushes just thinking the word). Thankfully Draco has no classes today, so he can get ready the entire day. His heart is beating through his chest already. He doesn’t know how he’ll survive—he checks the clock—from 9:48am until 3:30pm. But it’s a challenge he’s willing to face for Harry.

-+=+=+-

A note in the apartment, on the nightstand of the shared bedroom between the two boys reads, “Love you <3” in neat blue ink, and underneath, practically scribbles compared to the note above, writes, “I love you too <33”.

  


**Author's Note:**

> thanks for waiting for this! hope it was worth it; it took me wayyyy too long but I'm still not really happy with the pacing,,, oh well. this is the longest thing i've written (and in 3 days!) so i'm honestly pretty OK with it. hope u were too excited and didn't notice the mistakes and pacing issues. anyway, fluff is my specialty and i hope u enjoy this! happy birthday! <33


End file.
